Gervase Markham

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Mobile Market Reports

“thinkinsights” and Google have released some fascinating data about smartphone usage, gathered from detailed consumer surveys.

All the presentation reports (right hand column) have roughly the same format. Why not download the report for your country, and the one for Brazil (the launch country for B2G) and see how different things are there compared to where you live?

Compared to the UK, in Brazil:

Far fewer people have smartphones (14% vs 51%)

Smartphones are used less often (40% vs 59% daily)

They are used on-the-go less often (64% vs 86%) – poorer network coverage?

Social networking is proportionately more popular than email

Smartphone gaming is significantly less popular (39% vs 62%)

They use fewer apps, even free ones (14 vs 23 installed)

Almost all smartphone users are urban

Cohabitation is significantly less common (20% vs 11%)

Thoughts: reading between the lines, network coverage is poorer and data-on-the-go is harder to find. We need to make sure B2G phones and apps are solid in absence of a good network connection. Also, the phone will be the only computing device for many users.

One thought on “Mobile Market Reports”

Being a Brazilian myself, I can offer some first-hand information about your data and interpretation thereof.
First, yes, network coverage is not that good. Even in São Paulo, I hit spots where I can’t get a data connection, only a voice connection. Spots where I can only get an EDGE connection instead of a 3G connection are far too common. Smaller towns and rural areas are even worse.
But the lack of use on the go has another reason: price. Data plans are seen as expensive here. Several people I know have smartphones with no data plan at all. I myself have the dinkiest, cheapest data plan my carrier offers. OTOH, Wi-Fi at the workplace and even at home is rather common, so people use the smartphone features mostly by Wi-Fi.